(2019 Archived) - Methodologies of Sulphur Generation on Venus

Having written this in 2019, and originally published in 2021.. when I was 15 and 17, there would be inaccuracies that I would correct here. Having removed it, I'm publishing  again, for sake of completion so that the efforts wouldn't have gone to vain:

Sulphur, like Carbon, is a useful element of many industrial usages. Thus, having the ability to extract Sulphur from alien surroundings is great for an extraterrestrial colony. Here, Venus has the advantage of having more Sulphur-producing raw-material, than Mars. But how useful is Sulphur exactly? For starters, Sulphur is a good fertilizer – well, rather an increasing component of it: It’s fair as “the botanical requirement for sulfur equals or exceeds the requirement for phosphorus” ^[63]. Moreover, Sulfur could react directly with methane to give (1) carbon disulfide, used to manufacture (2) cellophane and (3) rayon. Similarly, it could be used as fungicides, pesticides, and an acaricide when powdered.

I believe that the most ideal way of extracting Sulphur from the Venusian atmosphere, would have to do something with the atmospheric elements. That is exactly what the Claus process uses. By definition, the Claus process is a methodology of obtaining Water, while recovering Sulfur, from gaseous Hydrogen Sulphide ^[50]. Still, I view Sulphur more as the more useful product here:

4H₂S + 2SO₂ + (∆Heat) → 3S₂ + 4H₂O

Hydrogen Sulphide + Sulphur Dioxide + (∆Heat) → Sulphur + Water

A unique feature of this process is that it manages to use Hydrogen Sulphide, which naturally exists in the Venusian atmosphere. Sulfur Dioxide, needed for this process, could be obtained from the thermal decomposition of Sulfur Trioxide. Catalysts including Aluminium (III) Oxide and Titanium (IV) Oxide could be used to expedite this reaction. It’s a good use of both Hydrogen Sulphide and Sulphur Dioxide, with a lot of producible Sulphur.

Similarly, Sulphur could be extracted by means of maintaining chemosynthetic Sulphur Bacteria farms:

6CO₂ + 12H₂S → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6H₂O +12S

Carbon Dioxide + Hydrogen Sulphide → Glucose + Water + Sulphur

Basically, they use environmental Hydrogen Sulphide and Carbon Dioxide; to synthesize the Glucose they need, with Water and elemental Sulphur as by-products. Do this in a mass-scale enough, and there would be masses of Sulphur to harvest. This form of outdoor activity would be quite endemic to Venus, and equally as effective in getting its job done.

Bibliography

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019